The state chronicle. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1883-1893, 1887-08-18
A MOUNTAIN MARRIAGE.
HOW THE BRAVE WIN THE FAIR
IN THE WILDS OF WILKES.
The UnpOetic Nature of Some Mountain.
eers and the HOpelessness of IsnOr-
ance.


The Unpoetic Nature of Some Mountain
eers and the Hopelessness of IsnOr-
ance.
Especial Cor. STATE CHRONICLE.]
One half of the world, we frequently
hear, knows not how the other half lives.
Wealth is not often Poverty's guest, and
Lazarus at the rich mans door had but a
faint idea Of his table, the picture to the
contrary notwithstanding. Lounging in
cool verandas, we read in the latest
novel perhaps of poverty and want, but
the real life is far away. Would you know
what it is? Then come into the hills and
spend a month IN some log cabin, with its
daubed, unsightly walls, its creaking pun
cheon floor, with its dirty table and tin
ware and rickety chairs. Eat the fried
hogs meat till nature rebels, then subsist
awhile on black bread and boiled beans.
See the man loaf about with his dogs, com
planning of hard times, While the woman
spins and cooks and tolls, and the squalld
children grow holow-eyed and depraved.
1.-The merchant charges so high for his
CLOTH" he says, ''youuns viii have ter
make me some clothes"
SO he takes his gun and strolls out to
shoot squirrels, while the weary woman
sits at the loom. Tread, tread, tread, back
and forward the shuttle flies. A baby is
there, a fretful crying baby always, bread
must be cooked, the garden patch worked
and when he comes in supper must be
ready And then you will hear him COM
plain that ''wimmen are gltten so. lazy an
trifin now days you can't git nothin' out
o en-" At thirty old age is upon these
women. They Wrinkle and shrivel, grow
toothess and yellow, till in their hideous-
ness death is loath to lay his finger upon
Il
for half a century. The curse of this gar
den land of ours is laziness. Did the men
work half so hard as the women the noun
tain country would blossom like Eden.
"Why don't you plant more corn?" |
asked of man whose acres We're thou
sands
'sW-a-a-l, +" said he. ''ef plant mo corn
| don't have no time ter hunt"
Raise hogs and have no need to hunt"
Not hunt, He stood in amazement. Not
hunt. Why then exist. What other mo-
tive could life hold, Corn at that moment
was in demand at one dollar bushel.
With laziness and poverty comes ignor
ance. 1t rests npon this land like Egyp-
tian darkness, palpab,e, with weight,
sitting, deadening. Think Of whole fami-
lies where not one can read or write his
name What's the use! Making Your mark
does Just as well in law, and the Squire
can read to YOU what's to be signed. Going
10 school is too much labor for the end in
view And as the father has lived the son
lives, and the sons son viii follow. Even
in politics, where one would suppose a ray
of light to have fallen, the gloom is often
zimmerman. In Ashe the other day a citi
zen insisted that the President was elected
by congressman.
No, by Electors.
"Waal now youuns may think so, but |
KNOW the Congressman meet in Washing
ton and elect him." And TO the last he
insisted that my interpretation of the
Constitution was wrong, and even if true
elsewhere, in Ashe they voted for Presi-
dent through the Congressman.
.-Weuns elected Cleveland, not unfre
quently we hear now. ''Weuns elected
him because the dimmecrats promised he'd
take the tax often whisky, an he haint
done it, an next time we goln' ter vote
agn him an put republican, in
Is it any marvel that these people look
sad; that gloom and melancholy rest
everywhere as tho death were in the house:
Upon man and woman and upon little
children. Never song or ripping
laugh The little girls are solemn and
deep eyed. with the marks of care, and the
idle urchin trudges the highway without
the merry whistliHg.
Ruskln observes the same in bis noun
tain travels, and attributes it to awe in
splred by the grandeur and solemnity of
mountain scenery. AS tho these people
wandering through forest aisles grow
silent as in some vast cathedral, awed by
the columns and cloud capped dome, while
the red light streaming and tlntIng wakes
the spirit of devotion and they pause to
pause to listen at the murmer rising like
H.. 4
presently for the burst Of an anthem of
praise, and all that sort of thing. He
doesn't say this, but reckon its the idea,
could his pages of interminable sentences
be sitted. The thought is very pretty and
RuskniSh. But wait moment.
''Come OUT" | called to my host one
rare evening as the great masses of fir-
tipped rock loomed above the black shad
ows, a crimson and royal purple, shading
the eye from the dazzle of the yellow west
and seeming to reach after the light
streamers flung to the zenith. Come out
and see the mountains" | called. He
dragged himself slowly out and stood
and looked while the golden streamers
grew red and the purple glow faded into
shadows. Till the evening star swung out
in the twilight and the mountain hung
over the valley black as the genius Of
night. Surely if a soul be in the man it
is touched May there not be germ in
this rude nature which when light dawn
may sometime give to the world new
thought, truer and grander, because fresh
er from the springs of Nature, from her
breast engrt with mountain arms. He
stands silent. Whence come these dreams
that have no place in words2 Why swells
the heart like maiden listening to words
of love, and tears come, and we long to
throw ourselves into Natures arms and
say-yes, take me, ! love you, | am yours.
| He is silent; he is touched; there is hope
for this people then. But wait, he speaks.
''W a-a-l thar air right sharp sight O
mast on them mountings for hogs"
Not all are thus. God forbid. There is
culture in the villages, and 1.-The Squire
on his fat bottom farm is man of good
sense and reads the "Acts of the Legisla-
ture" regularly. But what can the few do
among the many. man can move bnt
| little faster or slower than the medium
around him, otherwise he is destroyed by
friction.
1t was in Wilkesboro, few evenings
since, that beardless youth, lank and
gawky, clad in garments of nondesoript
pattern. wobbled into town, followed by a
lass of uncertain summers. The lass also
wobbled, for she consisted of ill-fitting
Joints The two at once attracted attention
by their peculiar dress and locomotion and
the astonishment depicted on their faces
| pporoDt1v II was tho first time thew had